Read Online The Slow Road by Jerry D. Young - Free Book Online Page B

the second one was full. That was assuming they ever generated that much human waste.
    To aid in keeping odors and insects down, Jasper built a large bin with concrete block to hold the sawdust he began collecting when he and Alvin cut wood. Each time he emptied the chemical toilet he would add a thick layer of the sawdust to cover the waste.
    At the end of the assembly along the hedge, Jasper used the last of his salvaged blocks and bricks to make a trash burner. He didn’t dare use it, as it was as illegal as the outhouse holes, but it would be there if the time ever came when he needed it.
    The only thing Jasper now really worried about was the loss of the city sewer system for a long period of time. The outhouse pits to dispose of the chemical toilet waste would work well for that specific purpose, but the gray water was another story.
    Jasper and Millie researched several solutions for the gray water but none that were cost effective for them would work in their situation. Jasper talked to the city inspector and determined that private septic systems were, in fact, illegal. The wording was such that Jasper was sure he found a loophole.
    He should be able to install a system, but not connect it to the sewer line from the house. He might have to fill the tank with dirt, but that wouldn’t be that much of a problem to clean it out and connect it to the house if it was ever needed.
    Despite having been friendly and helpful during the construction of the additions to the trailer, the inspector put his foot down on installing the system, especially in the front yard, which was the only place Jasper had left to put it. Jasper began to accumulate what it took to put the system in anyway, he and Millie deciding it was better to have the option than not.
    Millie couldn’t believe it. Jasper began to slow down a bit more. There were no more major projects. The house was the one they probably would retire in. Jasper continued to get some overtime, but he was spending plenty of quality time with the children and still taking care of their tiny homestead as they had started to refer to it. He’d never not helped with the children or canning, and so forth, but it had always been at the whim of his work and the necessary completion of whatever project he happened to be working on.
    With things going so well at the moment Millie found herself praying hard each Sunday that the life she and her family were living would continue. Such was not to be.
    Natural disasters first and foremost in their minds as they had built up their preps, the state of the world was always in the backs of their minds. Tensions had grown and then receded, on no real schedule, but no major shooting wars besides those in Afghanistan and Iraq had erupted. The family had dealt with the natural disasters that had occurred in the area, including the one moderate earthquake.
    The next one wasn’t moderate. It wasn’t “The Big One,” but it was a big one. And Jasper was caught right in the middle of it, working on a county bridge over one of the many drainage ditches that kept the one time swamp fertile cropland.
    Jasper felt the ground begin to move and dropped the hand tools he was using to work on the bridge into the bottom of the cherry picker basket. He almost got the basket clear of the bridge before the end he’d been working on slipped from the bulkhead and fell. Almost. The edge of the bridge caught the basket, knocking it down into the water and tipping the truck over despite the properly deployed outriggers.
    The movement flipped Jasper out of the basket and he landed awkwardly and hard, right at the edge of the water. The ground shook for nearly a minute and there was nothing the crew could do to help Jasper. The shaking collapsed the edge of the ground where the truck had tipped, allowing the truck to fall on top of Jasper.
    As soon as the shaking stopped the rest of the crew grabbed shovels and jumped down into the ditch to dig Jasper out from